I started out with Windows Movie Maker, but moved on to Sony Vegas a while ago and have been really happy with it. Add in every caveat about my being an utter amateur, I’ve found it pretty intuitive and fun to use, as long as I’m willing to watch occasional tutorial videos made by men with extremely depressing mustaches.

I don’t really understand the anxiety about even looking at a blackface performance. You can’t even start to understand American entertainment—in the 1920s, but also period—without dealing with blackface. It was a richer and weirder tradition than an uncomplicated “racism!” narrative can support, even if the race dynamic it reflects is obviously contemptible. Read Ann Douglas or Eric Lott or anything about Eddie Cantor or Bert Williams or Al Jolson.

you just had to put up this piece the one day I’m at work and dont have the internet at home yet!

That bothers me much more than your use of 1920′s entertainment footage and not excluding the widespread use of blackface because of 21st century superficial notions of “political correctness.” We can’t just wish away the stains of the past by collective, volitional forgetfulness?